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your child sleeping through the night?Click here now!
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I have 11 month old twins. At first they shared a room but we have found that everything works better if they are separated. After we did the two week program when they were about 7 months old, they were able to fall asleep by themselves and stay alseep all night. But for the last month or so, one of them will wake up at exactly 1:30 am every single night, which usually wakes the other even though they are in separate rooms. They only way to get them back to sleep seems to be to feed them and they get REALLY angry when we don’t. If we don’t feed them they will scream for what seems like hours on end. I know its a terrible habit to get into but at 2am all I want to do is avoid waking the other twin and be able to get some rest myself. Staying asleep all night had never been a problem before. What is happening and how do I fix it. It has been weeks since my husband and I have been able to sleep more that 2 hours at a time. Help!
My son is 5 on this old and we swaddle him. It works fine if I nurse him to sleep and place him in his crib, but if we try putting him down awake he breaks free. Should we just get rid of the swaddle and stick him in a sleep sac.
My daughter is 5 months old and sleeps through the night, but getting her to sleep is not a fun process we follow her bed time routine and she is such an active baby that she is scared she is going to miss something so she screams and gets upset even though she is tired. It’s easier when it’s bed time but naps are a different story. I was wondering what could I do to make this easier
I have an 18 month old boy who still will not sleep through the night! We took away nookie over 2 months ago! He wakes up atleast once or twice in the middle of the night & we bring him in bed w/ us so his crying doesn’t wake up r other son! Once he’s asleep we take him back 2 his bed! We don’t understand what were doing wrong! Is he having bad dreams? Please help!
My son is almost 5 months old. We have always had a bedtime routine. In the beginning, I did breastfeed my son to sleep, but stopped about 3 months. About a month ago, we started putting him down while he was drowsy instead of asleep (instead of rocking him or holding him, etc). He still will not sleep longer than 3-4 hours at a time. His naps for the most part are only 30-40 minutes. I do an Eat, Play, Sleep routine during the day. We have a white noise machine, keep it dark, quiet, perfect temperature, but he still cannot sleep through the night. What am I doing wrong? Uggh.
I have been doing everything wrong when it comes to feeding a before bed. I always nursed my son to sleep and would nurse him back to sleep everytime he woke up in the night. I nursed him for 16 months and then he was able to transition to falling asleep on his own with a paci. He started getting out of the crib, so we moved him to a twin bed. Now he will not stay in bed to fall asleep on his own. He constantly gets out of bed and can open the door. We’ve tried everything to get him to stay in bed, but we end up having to rock him to sleep or lay with him. The second he wakes up (5:30-6) he’s out of the bed, unable to fall back to sleep on his own. He’s 18 months and I feel like sleep is a lost cause at our house. He still wakes up in the night and has to be roked– we can’t keep on like this! Help!
My little boy is just over 4 months old. we do the bedtime routine thing but he is often put down in his cot aware that he has been put down. he then wiggle to get himself comfy and asleep he goes. however, he can wake after 20mins, when we try topping him up or replace dummy. he can often wake up to 3-4 within the first hrs and half before we get any sleep length from him. even then he can wake after 4-6 hrs and want another top up.
we get to the point sometimes where we let him cry for 5mins and then replace dummy and then he generally goes off for a while. we are really confused as to why he wakes so many times early on if he is more or less awake when we lay him in his cot, which he loves. please can you give any advice on this and then how to make him go longer during the night. Often each night is different despite the routine being the same since he was 5 weeks. thank you.
I have been doing this and you ate 100% right she wakes up half an hr after and I end up letting get cry it out.. I’m at a loss she will not sleep through am pullingy hair out!!! She contiuesly wakes up for a feed and before that crutial tome will wake constantly for the dummy what do I do I am really struggling!!!!!
Hi Dana. I’ve been following your nighttime routine for two days and the second night was miles better than the first. A few people told me to do a ‘dream feed’ at around 11 which I did last night once my little girl started making moves to wake up. It worked and she stayed asleep until 6. She is 4 months old but only weighs 10lb 2oz at last weigh in so I believe she needs a night feed at least until she weighs more as she is currently only just over the bottom percentile line.
I know it’s only been two days but I’m having trouble with the daytime naps because she doesn’t go down easily, we try for 1hr10 and then have a half hour break and try again. It usually works, but she sleeps for 20-30minutes only.
By then, it’s too late for the third nap of the day.
Do you have any suggestions to make the transition easier?
She is also a thumb sucker, it helps her soothe herself, but not for long.
My baby co-slept with my husband and I until he was almost a year old. I too nursed him through the night and was EXTREMELY doubtful that he would ever sleep through the night if I stopped nursing cold turkey (as suggested by Dana). I just wanted to respond to your comment Becca, in saying that THERE IS HOPE. I have been doing the sleep sense program for 2 weeks now, and my little guy now sleeps through the night. There are occassions when he does wake once, or even twice for a few minutes, but getting him back to sleep is painless. I nurse him during our bedtime routine, and in the morning, but no more night time feedings. My husband got up with him the first few nights of the program, but once he saw Daddy, he knew he wasn’t getting any milk from him. Perhaps try on a weekend when your husband doesn’t have to work?
But stopping cold turkey did work for me. He went from waking ever few hours, to now sleeping anywhere from 6-10 hours straight:) woohoo!
I made this mistake when my daughter was born and she is now 9 months old and has to nurse to sleep. I have tried so hard to teach her to sleep without being nursed but we always end up both misserable and I end up giving in so she will stop screaming hysterically. Every once in a while she will fall asleep herself in her crib after nursing but those nights don’t happen often. Her dad wishes he could help out with middle of the night wake ups but if I don’t nurse her as soon as she wakes up she is hysterical, and she REFUSES a bottle at night. I am ready to wean her from breastfeeding soon but I’m afraid if I do no one will sleep
I have made this mistake also. My 9 month old daughter will not fall asleep for bed until she has nursed herself to sleep. I’ve tried stopping nursing her before she’s about to fall asleep and I’ll try to sooth her to sleep or rocker but it won’t work and I’ll give in and let her nurse like she wants and then she is asleep. She also is a cosleeper , because no matter how much I would try since the day she was born she would not sleep in her own bed. Not even in the hospital.
Video Transcript - The Number One Bedtime Mistake!
Hi I'm Dana, and this week I wanted to talk a bit about the bedtime routine, and the number one mistake parents make when they are creating a bedtime routine. It's a big mistake, so stay tuned!
Now, if you go to any baby site on the Web, search "my baby won't sleep," or whatever you're looking for in regards to sleep, almost every single site will tell you about the importance of a bedtime routine. So will I.
I think a bedtime routine is a crucial first step in creating predictability to your baby and teaching your baby that it's time to make that transition from day into night.
Even adults have routines. We all do things in the same order before bed every night. Without them, we would feel a little anxious or out of sorts, and it would be harder to sleep.So it definitely is important, but there is one mistake that parents make.
Most of the time people skip right over that. "Oh bedtime routine, right, next," because we've heard it so much, but the biggest mistake that parents make in that is that somewhere in the routine, the baby sleeps!
For example, you've heard the baby should have a bath, so you're going to do a bath, you're going to get jammies on, you're going to read a book maybe, and then you're going to do a feeding. There, right there, that's the snag.
You feed your baby to sleep, either on the breast or with the bottle.
Most people turn off the lights when its feed time, get the environment nice and cozy and comfy, and then that's your child's cue that it's time to start the journey into sleep. That is where you need to make your changes.
If you nurse or bottle feed your baby to sleep and then transfer them to the crib, well you're not going to have a baby that sleeps through the night, that's for sure. You're probably going to find half an hour later, 45 minutes later they are awake again, and you've got to start the process all over again.
Bath, great; PJs, great; feeding fine. It's totally acceptable to feed a baby before bed. In fact, I encourage it, but keep the lights on high enough that you can watch, and don't even let sleep start.
Again if you think of sleep as a journey, I don't even want you to allow your baby to start the journey. Starting a journey looks like doziness, so heavy blinking, closing the eyes, opening them, anything like that is the beginning of a journey, so don't let that start!
Keep that baby's eyes open so that they start to realize that food is a nice lovely step in the bedtime routine, but it is not for the purpose of sleep. That comes next.
If your baby has a really strong association between eating and sleeping, I suggest you break it up with an extra step even after the feed. Feed, sit baby up on your lap, maybe read a story together after the fact, just to break that connection a little bit further and to start to teach that baby that there is no way or there is no reason to fall asleep while feeding.
Then the baby should go into the crib awake. That is how you start The Sleep Sense Program. We'll teach you how to do that, but it's also the number one way your baby is going to learn the skills she or he needs in order to become a great sleeper and start sleeping through the night.
So have a look at your bedtime routine. Even though you know you have one, you probably had one since the baby was born, but you probably need to make a fairly significant change to it. That is to stop feeding your baby to sleep as part of the routine. Even rocking, you might have to say goodbye to any kind of rocking in the routine as well.
I have 11 month old twins. At first they shared a room but we have found that everything works better if they are separated. After we did the two week program when they were about 7 months old, they were able to fall asleep by themselves and stay alseep all night. But for the last month or so, one of them will wake up at exactly 1:30 am every single night, which usually wakes the other even though they are in separate rooms. They only way to get them back to sleep seems to be to feed them and they get REALLY angry when we don’t. If we don’t feed them they will scream for what seems like hours on end. I know its a terrible habit to get into but at 2am all I want to do is avoid waking the other twin and be able to get some rest myself. Staying asleep all night had never been a problem before. What is happening and how do I fix it. It has been weeks since my husband and I have been able to sleep more that 2 hours at a time. Help!
My son is 5 on this old and we swaddle him. It works fine if I nurse him to sleep and place him in his crib, but if we try putting him down awake he breaks free. Should we just get rid of the swaddle and stick him in a sleep sac.
hi i was wondering if you can swaddle your baby to go to sleep or if that is considered a prop as well
My daughter is 5 months old and sleeps through the night, but getting her to sleep is not a fun process we follow her bed time routine and she is such an active baby that she is scared she is going to miss something so she screams and gets upset even though she is tired. It’s easier when it’s bed time but naps are a different story. I was wondering what could I do to make this easier
I have an 18 month old boy who still will not sleep through the night! We took away nookie over 2 months ago! He wakes up atleast once or twice in the middle of the night & we bring him in bed w/ us so his crying doesn’t wake up r other son! Once he’s asleep we take him back 2 his bed! We don’t understand what were doing wrong! Is he having bad dreams? Please help!
My son is almost 5 months old. We have always had a bedtime routine. In the beginning, I did breastfeed my son to sleep, but stopped about 3 months. About a month ago, we started putting him down while he was drowsy instead of asleep (instead of rocking him or holding him, etc). He still will not sleep longer than 3-4 hours at a time. His naps for the most part are only 30-40 minutes. I do an Eat, Play, Sleep routine during the day. We have a white noise machine, keep it dark, quiet, perfect temperature, but he still cannot sleep through the night. What am I doing wrong? Uggh.
I have been doing everything wrong when it comes to feeding a before bed. I always nursed my son to sleep and would nurse him back to sleep everytime he woke up in the night. I nursed him for 16 months and then he was able to transition to falling asleep on his own with a paci. He started getting out of the crib, so we moved him to a twin bed. Now he will not stay in bed to fall asleep on his own. He constantly gets out of bed and can open the door. We’ve tried everything to get him to stay in bed, but we end up having to rock him to sleep or lay with him. The second he wakes up (5:30-6) he’s out of the bed, unable to fall back to sleep on his own. He’s 18 months and I feel like sleep is a lost cause at our house. He still wakes up in the night and has to be roked– we can’t keep on like this! Help!
My little boy is just over 4 months old. we do the bedtime routine thing but he is often put down in his cot aware that he has been put down. he then wiggle to get himself comfy and asleep he goes. however, he can wake after 20mins, when we try topping him up or replace dummy. he can often wake up to 3-4 within the first hrs and half before we get any sleep length from him. even then he can wake after 4-6 hrs and want another top up.
we get to the point sometimes where we let him cry for 5mins and then replace dummy and then he generally goes off for a while. we are really confused as to why he wakes so many times early on if he is more or less awake when we lay him in his cot, which he loves. please can you give any advice on this and then how to make him go longer during the night. Often each night is different despite the routine being the same since he was 5 weeks. thank you.
I have been doing this and you ate 100% right she wakes up half an hr after and I end up letting get cry it out.. I’m at a loss she will not sleep through am pullingy hair out!!! She contiuesly wakes up for a feed and before that crutial tome will wake constantly for the dummy what do I do I am really struggling!!!!!
Hi Dana. I’ve been following your nighttime routine for two days and the second night was miles better than the first. A few people told me to do a ‘dream feed’ at around 11 which I did last night once my little girl started making moves to wake up. It worked and she stayed asleep until 6. She is 4 months old but only weighs 10lb 2oz at last weigh in so I believe she needs a night feed at least until she weighs more as she is currently only just over the bottom percentile line.
I know it’s only been two days but I’m having trouble with the daytime naps because she doesn’t go down easily, we try for 1hr10 and then have a half hour break and try again. It usually works, but she sleeps for 20-30minutes only.
By then, it’s too late for the third nap of the day.
Do you have any suggestions to make the transition easier?
She is also a thumb sucker, it helps her soothe herself, but not for long.
My baby co-slept with my husband and I until he was almost a year old. I too nursed him through the night and was EXTREMELY doubtful that he would ever sleep through the night if I stopped nursing cold turkey (as suggested by Dana). I just wanted to respond to your comment Becca, in saying that THERE IS HOPE. I have been doing the sleep sense program for 2 weeks now, and my little guy now sleeps through the night. There are occassions when he does wake once, or even twice for a few minutes, but getting him back to sleep is painless. I nurse him during our bedtime routine, and in the morning, but no more night time feedings. My husband got up with him the first few nights of the program, but once he saw Daddy, he knew he wasn’t getting any milk from him. Perhaps try on a weekend when your husband doesn’t have to work?
But stopping cold turkey did work for me. He went from waking ever few hours, to now sleeping anywhere from 6-10 hours straight:) woohoo!
I made this mistake when my daughter was born and she is now 9 months old and has to nurse to sleep. I have tried so hard to teach her to sleep without being nursed but we always end up both misserable and I end up giving in so she will stop screaming hysterically. Every once in a while she will fall asleep herself in her crib after nursing but those nights don’t happen often. Her dad wishes he could help out with middle of the night wake ups but if I don’t nurse her as soon as she wakes up she is hysterical, and she REFUSES a bottle at night. I am ready to wean her from breastfeeding soon but I’m afraid if I do no one will sleep
I have made this mistake also. My 9 month old daughter will not fall asleep for bed until she has nursed herself to sleep. I’ve tried stopping nursing her before she’s about to fall asleep and I’ll try to sooth her to sleep or rocker but it won’t work and I’ll give in and let her nurse like she wants and then she is asleep. She also is a cosleeper , because no matter how much I would try since the day she was born she would not sleep in her own bed. Not even in the hospital.